What is cloud enablement?
Cloud enablement is the process of creating an effective cloud solution based on the existing infrastructure, applications, and data that a company is currently using on-premises.
The goal of cloud enablement is to replace on-premises devices such as servers and data centers with applications and services that are accessed through the internet. This digital transformation allows organizations to utilize either a private cloud, public cloud, community cloud, or hybrid cloud environment, depending on which best suits their business requirements. Cloud adoption can reduce capital expenditures (CAPEX) and costs, as well as improve performance through cloud computing. Cloud-based platforms focus on reliability and scalability for their customers, meaning that organizations can expect an uptime of more than 99%, with the flexibility to add or remove services as desired to meet their goals.
Successful cloud enablement allows an organization to reap all the benefits of cloud platforms. Organizations can utilize public cloud software, such as Microsoft Azure and offerings from Amazon Web Services (AWS), to build and manage applications, or use a data center to store, process, and analyze big data to identify business trends and institute long term plans. By comparing existing services and infrastructure to what is available through a cloud provider, organizations can either select relevant cloud services, or choose to move all their data and services to appropriate cloud technology.
Rather than having to guess at what they need, organizations can utilize a cloud enablement service to assist them in deciding how best to get everything they need moved to the cloud. These services are well versed in the different offerings available from cloud platform providers, and they have the knowledge necessary to analyze the existing business services, applications, and data to plan for an optimized cloud transformation. They can also help ensure that all data is transferred correctly, so as to minimize turnaround time. Cloud enablement services help to take the guesswork out of a cloud deployment and ensure that the most effective solutions are being utilized for the best price.
Benefits of cloud enablement include:
- Cost optimizations:Rather than investing heavily in CAPEX such as hardware, software licenses, and facilities, cloud platforms often have pay-as-you-go models, so subscribers only need to pay for what they use as they use it. Cloud development services can help optimize these payments to ensure organizations are getting the most out of their budget.
- Consistent accessibility and availability: Cloud platforms allow for data access from virtually any device that can connect to the internet, and service providers aim for an uptime above 99.99% for their offerings.
- Scalability:Cloud services allow organizations to expand or reduce services as needed. Rather than needing to purchase larger or more powerful devices, organizations can change their current applications’ bandwidth in response to business trends.
- Increased data safety:When data and applications are stored on-premises, they are subject to the safety of their physical location. Meaning if there was a fire or robbery, then the data loss could be catastrophic. Cloud platforms allow for automatic backups to occur across different geographic regions, making data loss much less likely.